Grace Projects

CherryBomb!

I was the main rigging artist for the animated short CherryBomb!. It won an honorable mention prize at the University of Texas at Dallas Spring 2025 Capstone Celebration. I created the rigs and controls for the two main characters, Cherry and Grandpa.

Cherry’s rig had some interesting bits- her spiky ponytails, cartoonish proportions, and 2D mouth all proved challenges that required creative solutions.

For her ponytails, I used joints connected to controls so animators could move them freely.

Cherry’s head and spiky ponytails in a gray 3D viewport, with circular rig controls around the hair. — Joints and controls for Cherry’s spiky ponytails.

Her 2D mouth was a plane that warped onto her face, allowing animators to slide it around however they needed.

Cherry with a large open 2D mouth and colored facial and body controls in a 3D viewport. — Cherry’s 2D mouth plane and facial controls.

Her cartoonish proportions also made joint placement harder, especially in the spine. Some joints were very close together, which made the controls move more than they should.

Cherry’s torso in a T-pose with spine joints and overlapping colored rig controls. — Closely spaced joints and controls around Cherry’s spine.

Grandpa’s rig was fairly simple, his main challenges being his face. His lack of eyes made it so his eyebrows would have to do the heavy lifting in creating emotion in his face, so I implemented more detailed controls for them. I also added more controls to his nose and mustache, for the same reason.